Football players sing, dance, have a ball at Muskegon Chronicle media day

MUSKEGON - One player made a bottle of water disappear in a single guzzle, seemingly inhaling the entire plastic container. That was seconds after said player, who is very large, did the splits.

Another player did his best Justin Bieber impression. (He kind of looks like him, too.)

Others showed off deft dance moves. Some mimicked their head coaches. The competitive spirit of many players shined through in the bean-bag-toss game.

A good time was had by all, as they say, when MLive hosted the first session of its annual Muskegon Chronicle High School Football Media Days Monday at the downtown office at 379 W. Western Ave.

Ten Muskegon-area teams took part in the first wave of interviews advancing the high school football season, which gets rolling with the first official practices on Monday, Aug. 6. The first games of the 2018 campaign will be played Aug. 23-25.

Hart kicked things off Monday, and Holton wrapped it up for the day. In between, Ravenna, Fremont, Muskegon, Muskegon Heights, Fruitport, Oakridge, Hesperia and Reeths-Puffer made visits to the MLive Muskegon Chronicle office.

Each school's head football coach brought a handful of players to the MLive hub. Players and coaches got their pictures taken, interviews were conducted and group photo sessions were held at various locations in downtown Muskegon in a social event that serves as an ice-breaker for the upcoming season.

Eleven more teams are slated to visit the Muskegon office Wednesday for the second round of preseason interviews and hijinks.

Keep an eye on MLive in the next couple weeks for coverage of the Muskegon-area teams as the season fast approaches.

For now, make sure you look through the fantastic photo gallery above, courtesy of Cory Morse, to see the faces of the players and coaches who took part in Monday's media-day event. Also, don't forget to check out the video above to see how much fun the players were having Monday.

For coverage from the second media day, check this out:

For video highlights from the second media day, watch this:

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